Captured on a YouTube video saying he had been flailing about for an hour trying to get his voice working for a live interview in Second Life, company founder Philip Rosedale confessed to having endured a "crazy painful" struggle with the declining virtual world platform.

The former game god attempted to make the best of a bad situation by marveling that there are still active players in the game - not an uncommon sentiment, but perhaps not the most politic thing to admit.

Philip Rosedale: gob smacked by Second Life trouble?

"That was crazy painful. I guess my first thought is, its so inspiring what a great community we've still got here, even with - I mean look at me, I'm the guy who created this thing and it just took me an hour to get this working" - Philip Rosedale

The strangely pale and wax-like Rosedale appears to have been suffering from life-threatening blood loss at the fangs of in-world vampires -- or possibly from some bad decisions in his avatar skin and animation selections. Previous incarnations of Philip look significantly more lively.

sparkle-crotch biker-bar Philip poses, circa 2010

Apollo Manga's 30 minute video documents Rosedale's visit to the Second Life for an interview by Emcee Widget as part of the festivities surrounding Burn 2 - a virtual Burning Man celebration held in-world.

Formerly known in Second Life as Philip Linden, Rosedale recently left Linden Lab and launched HighFidelity - a new venture that may someday be a competing platform.

Now that he is no longer on Linden Lab's staff, Rosedale was forced to drop the "Linden" last name which denotes staff members. But Rosedale still has some pull, since he was not forced to use the standard-issue "Resident" last name, and instead is the only Second Life player with Rosedale as a last name.

only one player with the last name Rosedale

Rosedale's struggles could explain a problem that Hamlet "Hammie" Au of the Linden Lab fanboy site New World Notes is concerned about - falling revenue due to declining numbers of players willing to pay eye-watering sums for virtual land in the game.

However, another school of thought believes that if Linden Lab were to cut the prices on the 10-year old platform's main product, the invisible hand of the market might lead to more demand and greater total revenue - a concept that Hammie Au assures everyone will never occur.

Ener Hax projects Second Life's decline

Meanwhile, I wonder if Philip Rosedale was sending a subliminal message with his new avatar's death-like pallor. Is this the end? Will we ever see Philip in drag or rocking the glitter crotch look again?

Philip Linden's everyday look in 2004

2004: Urizenus Sklar (left) interviews Philip Linden in drag (right)

10 Responses to “Philip Rosedale Humiliated By Second Life Voice – SHOCK!!!”

NotAVCVampire Residential

Sep 8th, 2013

Wait. If it looks like a vampire and hangs with the bloodsuckers of commerce, Occam’s razor suggests a logical conclusion.

Emperor Norton

Sep 9th, 2013

So Phil’s next master is use his customer’s hardware and internet accounts to run his business.

Baloo Uriza

Sep 9th, 2013

Not sure it’s safe to say SL is in decline even with the private estate numbers dropping, seems that largely had to do with malls and in-world shopping centers mostly going away as the need to have them greatly diminished with the SL Marketplace gaining traction. The mainlands have definitely become more popular in recent years, which is definitely a good thing from SL’s standpoint, since trying to navigate a bunch of disjointed remote estates is a lot harder than following a contiguous continent with established roads, canals and rails. Granted, the farther away you get from the big cities like Nova Albion and Kama City, things start getting a more rural feel again with more open lots. It’s a transition period. Vendors don’t want to drop tier when buyers are on the Marketplace; residents don’t want to live on an expensive private island if they can move into the much less expensive mainlands affordably.

As for voice, is anybody really surprised Vivox is crap? We’ve been saying this from the time it rolled out.

Edna

Sep 9th, 2013

I think you are correct about Phillip’s avatar being symbolic. However, you might have missed what he meant. I think that his avatar is not a vampire, but a zombie. You know, the walking dead?

If this is the case, Phillip is telling us that Second Life is not dying, it is already long dead. The current residents are simply zombies and lost souls who haven’t figured out that they are dead yet.